Tales from the Land of Salt by Emmanuel S. Sison (.ePUB)
File Size: 6.3 MB
Tales from the Land of Salt by Emmanuel S. Sison
Requirements: .ePUB Reader | 6.3MB
Overview: Long before there was Pangasinan, the province, there was Panag-asinan – the Land of Salt. The salt people were also fishermen.The vast expanse of plains, further inland, to the south was crisscrossed by rivers – that all emptied into the Lingayen Gulf. It was populated by the rice people who also cultivated root crops and vegetables, and domesticated animals.In the wooded forests lived the mountain people who hunted wild game, gathered forest products, wove baskets and mats and carved “anitos” or wooden gods. They also mined gold and traded with the lowlanders for rice, salt and dried fish.Except for little fights involving land boundaries, petty jealousies and domestic conflicts, the salt, rice and mountain people all lived in peaceful coexistence.They believed in the supreme gods of nature and worshipped their dead ancestors. They were proud of their past and lived fruitful lives. Their leaders governed them relatively well. To inspire their young, their elders told stories of the adventure and heroism of their forebears. They explained the phenomenon around them in terms of their relationship with their gods whom they supplicated by offering food and wine.But all this would soon change. Foreign incursions brought forth in Panag-asinan the tentacles of the Sri-Visayan Empire, as exemplified by Princess Urduja, as well as the impact of the Chinese traders and the half-bred Sangleys who settled in Lingayen long before Limahong would reach the Panag-asinan shores.These influences would shape Panag-asinan’s cultural, social, economic and political outlook, if not its very structure. The datus, anacbanuas, timawas and aripens would become integral elements and influence Panag-asinan’s identity even to this day.Like normal people, they celebrated good harvests, waged petty wars with each other, mourned their dead, married off their children, gambled in cockfights, abused their aripens but they always sang songs and told stories of their beginnings and the exploits of their ancestors. All these tales would find their way into the legends, myths and folklore of the Panag-asinan folk.Then the Spanish colonizers came. The cross provided a convenient mask for their lust for gold as well as for the fertile lands owned by the Panag-asinan tribes during their long rule of tyranny and greed.The white man’s interaction with the Panag-asinan folk would involve real people, leaders who fought the Spanish tyrants to death to regain their country’s freedom.Another freedom-fighter, Jose Rizal, who scared the Spaniards out of their wits because of his genius, had roots in the Land of Salt. Lingayen was to play host in nurturing his romance with his cousin, Leonor Rivera, in several visits to his relatives there. Lingayen would also bear witness to the demise of that love when it turned tragic for both lovers and for people they loved.Stories of the rice, salt and mountain people and those of the Sri-Visayan influences as well as of the brutality and greed of the Spanish tyrants all contributed to the cultural legacy of the people from the land we now call Pangasinan.The Pangasinenses are today the inheritors of that rich and glorious past.“Tales from the Land of the Salt”This is their story.
Genre: Non-Fiction > Faith, Beliefs & Philosophy > Mythology
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